Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Gingerbread People

Cooking with the kids can be fun at times or very messy!!! My 3 cherubs LOVE getting their hands into everything. Licking the spoon would rate very highly on their radar but having just one spoon between 3 can sometimes cause riots in our place. Being a rainy afternoon, there was a little bit of cabin fever going around so we decided making gingerbread people would be a nice simple boredom busting activity. Plus the kids can eat the dough and everyone is happy!

This gingerbread recipe is a household favourite in our family from way back. I remember our mum making it and B even had us all making it for her wedding as a special gift for each guest.

The recipe is from The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits from The Australian Women's Weekly (AWW). Nearly everyone I know has this book tucked away somewhere at the back of their mother or grandmother's cupboard, along with the Children's Birthday Cake Book. I had to purchase my copy off eBay as my mother won't part with hers (when mine arrived in the mail it even smelt of mothballs!!). I also suspect B nabbed mum's spare copy - thanks B!

Step 3 Lift the figures onto a lined baking tray. Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes. Cool on trays. Spoon royal icing into small plastic bag, snip off one corner to make a piping bag.

Royal Icing
Sift icing sugar. Beat egg white lightly in a small bowl, using a wooden spoon. Add icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. When icing reaches piping consistency, beat in lemon juice and desired food colouring. Makes about 20.